


cooking by the book

by efreet



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Baking, Gen, Holidays, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 01:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5520176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/efreet/pseuds/efreet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Anise knows cake is the number one way to win people over to this new Yule Festival. A cake tradition! The Order will provide free cake. To honor Yulia, obviously."</p>
            </blockquote>





	cooking by the book

**Author's Note:**

> This is my secret santa for divineshark on Tumblr/Twitter, who asked for something with Anise and Florian baking together. I had a lot of fun writing this, and I hope you enjoy it! Happy holidays!!

Winter makes Daath look more appealing than it really is. Snow covers the dusty streets and mud-colored rooftops like a blanket, and the whole city seems brighter, somehow. Coupled with the golden music-themed ornaments for the Yule Festival, Daath looks like a completely different place. Ordinarily, the city is more like a gloomy cesspool of religious fanatics. Or maybe that’s just Anise’s cynicism talking. She’s spent _way_ too much time in Daath lately.

 

Becoming the first female Fon Master is no easy task, and Anise has had to beg, cajole and flatter her way through what feels like hundreds of stuffy old men who are still stuck on the Score and Grand Maestro Mohs. Most of them want to appoint themselves as the new head of the Order; the rest think Florian should be the new Fon Master, which is ridiculous.

 

Luckily, Anise has newly appointed Grand Maestro Tritheim to back her up, not to mention her friends. Tear has been incredibly helpful, aside from being a little skeptical about Anise’s more extreme plans for the Order. Peony and Natalia don’t have a whole lot of influence over the Order, but hey. She’ll take what she can get. It wasn’t easy winning them over, but she’s learned a _lot_ about holding onto her temper. Also a lot about politics. More than she ever wanted to know about politics.

 

Weirdly enough, Jade was the only one who didn’t look skeptical when Anise first told him about her plan. He’d just told her it would be a lot more work than marrying a rich husband, and proceeded to list off things she’d have to study. For all his criticism and sarcasm, she knows Jade well enough to tell when he thinks something is feasible.

 

And hey, Anise _is_ well on her way to actually becoming Fon Master. But there are still plenty of people who think she can’t handle the job. The Yule Festival is going to be the first real test of her influence within Daath. Tritheim has left it up to her to decide how the celebration will be handled.

 

The Yule Festival is supposedly the day when Yulia Jue first recited the Score. In preparation, people would hang up gold ornaments in honor of Yulia. The day of the festival was celebrated by the reading of fonstones and in more fervent cases, spending the whole day thinking about the Score.

 

Except there’s no Score now. Which is good, because it means Anise gets to come up with a much more exciting holiday. She’s thinking about including something to do with cake. Everyone loves cake.

 

The ornaments are pretty, and Anise doubts that she would be able to stop people from putting them up anyway, so she leaves those alone. So, she talks over a few things with Tritheim, and finally decides to replace the usual fonstone readings with an actual festival.

 

The cathedral will provide a kind of feast to those who attend. There’s room for half of Auldrant in there, so Anise doesn’t think space will be a problem. And instead of the Order providing a feast, everyone is required to bring something of their own to share. That way, Anise doesn’t have to be responsible for feeding all of Daath.

 

Except for the cake part. Tritheim had been a little skeptical about this part, but Anise _knows_ cake is the number one way to win people over to this new Yule Festival. A cake tradition! The Order will provide free cake. To honor Yulia, obviously.

 

In the end, Tritheim had given in, but the rest of the Order hadn’t been so sure.

 

Which is how Anise finds herself stuck in the kitchens, alone. The Daath kitchen staff tends to avoid her, mostly because she used to complain to them about Ion’s meals so often. They used to send him the richest food they had, and of course he would eat it all and feel terrible afterward, and then Anise would have to go downstairs and yell at them. As soon as they’d seen her come into the kitchen, they had all mysteriously disappeared.

 

Which means slaving over the fourth bowl of batter she’s made _all by herself_. She’s not great at making desserts, but she’s determined to find the perfect cake for the new Yule tradition. So far, she’s just been trying out recipes from the kitchen’s cookbooks.

 

Tear had come downstairs to help for a while, but even she had gotten tired after her second attempt. The cake she’d learn to make on their journey is good, but it’s not exactly what Anise has in mind.

 

“Arrgh!” Anise yells to nobody, stirring with more force than is strictly necessary. She’s so absorbed in her thoughts that she doesn’t even hear footsteps behind her.

 

“Anise!” cries a familiar voice, and something collides with her back. She practically falls face first into her bowl.

 

“Florian, what are you doing down here?” Anise scolds, turning around. With one hand she carefully slides the batter to a more secure place on the counter. “I thought Mama was going to look after you this afternoon,”

 

Florian grins, looking immensely pleased with himself. “Pamela went to go check on something, so I came to visit! Everyone said you were in the kitchen,”

 

Anise rubs her forehead. She loves Florian, _adores_ him, he’s the cutest thing she’s ever seen, but she’s frustrated and tired. “That’s nice, but I’m busy now, okay, Florian? You should go find Mama, I’m sure she’s worried about you,”

 

“No way! I wanna help,” Florian says, crossing his arms. He looks like he’s on the verge of one of his tantrums. Anise’s mother calls it “the terrible twos”, which doesn’t even make sense. Ion was two, and he was definitely not this stubborn. Quite the opposite, actually. Then again, he did start getting kidnapped a lot around this age...

 

Anise sighs. “Okay, okay. You can, um. Help me wash the dishes!” she suggests brightly, pointing to the growing pile in the sink.

 

“That’s boring,” Florian says frankly. It’s probably good that he’s willing to act like a brat now. At first, he’d been scared of everything. There was a time when Anise would have to hold his hand just to walk through the corridors of the cathedral, and stand in front of him whenever he met someone new. Luckily, Florian is surprisingly resilient, and he’s recovered admirably. He’s still shy around strangers, and skittish about certain things, but he’s happy just to be cared for and looked after. Without the pressure of the Fon Master title, he’s allowed to be a child.

 

“I wanna help bake!” Florian pipes up, shaking Anise out of her thoughts.

 

Anise looks over at the cookbooks. Then she looks back at Florian. “I’ll make you a deal,” she says finally. “If you can help find me a cake recipe for the festival, we can bake it together,” It’s a good plan, since whatever they pick has to be easy to make, and Florian can learn a simple recipe.

 

Florian straightens. “I can do that!” he says eagerly. Anise knows he’s been practicing his reading a lot lately, so he’s excited about getting a chance to show off.

 

“Okay, here you go,” she says, handing a spare one to him. “Go find a place to sit and let me know when you find something, okay?” She can’t help smiling as he goes to pull over a stool and sits right next to her. He’s awfully cute.

 

With Florian occupied, she turns back to the batter she had been working on. It only needs a few more stirs before it’s ready to go in the oven, but she already knows it’s not right. It took her way too long to make. Well, at least she’ll have dessert for herself and Florian.

 

“Anise, what about this one?” Florian asks, holding the book open toward her. “Chocolate cake!”

 

Anise grins.”That was one of my first picks too,” she admits. “It looks _really_ good. But chocolate is expensive, and the Order can’t afford to feed everyone that much of it,”

 

Florian pouts. “Chocolate is the best,” he declares, turning back to the book. “So we can’t have any chocolate in the cake?”

 

“Maybe a little,” Anise says. “But not the whole cake. Unless we’re willing to send the Order into major debt,” That might be pretty funny, but it definitely wouldn’t say great things about her decision-making skills as future Fon Master.

 

“Chocolate cake might would be worth it,” Florian says.

 

And people are still clamoring for Florian to be Fon Master. Well, Anise isn’t gonna stop him from reforming the Order of Lorelei in the name of chocolate if it happens. She’ll be the Grand Chocolate Maestro.

 

Florian turns another page in the book while Anise pours the batter into an appropriately shaped tin and slides it into the oven. It’ll turn out edible, at least, but it won’t help with the festival preparations. She finds a timer in one of the cabinets and sets it for an hour and a half.

 

The counter is littered with chunks of butter and open bags of sugar and flour. There’s not much point in cleaning up if she’s just going to make another cake, but she sticks the bowls in the sink and gives Florian the batter-covered spoon to lick. Technically he’s not supposed to snack too much, but heck, he could do with fattening up.

 

Anise is just starting to wipe down the counter and get out a fresh bowl when Florian gasps. She spins around, afraid she’s going to see him passed out on the floor or something, but he just holds the cookbook up for her.

 

“What about this one?” Florian asks excitedly. “It’s really simple! And it looks good, too,”

 

It’s a recipe for pound cake. Florian is right--it is simple. The ingredients are all easy to get, and basically all you have to do is mix them together and stick them in the oven. Hopefully it’ll be as easy to bake as it seems.

 

Anise claps her hands together. “This looks great,” she tells Florian. “Let’s do it!”

 

Florian jumps to his feet, almost knocking over his stool. “Okay! What do you need me to get?”

 

Together they gather the ingredients. Anise already has sugar, butter and flour out, so Florian goes to the cellar for milk and eggs. He comes back carrying them both carefully in his arms, like he’s afraid they might explode at any moment.

 

“You can just put them on the counter,” Anise says, trying not to laugh and failing. “You don’t have to be that careful,”

 

Florian places them gently on the counter and steps back. “I broke a lot of them once,” he confesses. “With Pamela. We were supposed to boil them, but I tripped and they broke,”

 

Anise grins. “Well, you didn’t break any this time!” she says cheerfully. “Not yet, anyway,”

 

Florian’s eyes widen. “Not yet?”

 

“We gotta break them to put them in the cake,” Anise explains. “I’ll show you how soon. But what does the recipe say we have to do first?”

 

Florian leans over the book on the counter and recites, “Cream together two cups of butter and three cups of sugar until light and fluffy,” He looks over at Anise questioningly. “What does that mean?”

 

“We mix the butter and sugar together until it’s looks fluffy,” Anise explains, handing him a measuring cup and sliding a bowl in front of him. “Can you hold that while I pour in the sugar?”

 

Florian nods seriously, and keeps the cup steady while Anise pours sugar in. Once the cup is full, she tells Florian to pour it into the bowl. After the third cup, she opens up the box of butter that Florian brought over.

 

The butter comes in little square packages marked with numbers to indicate how many cups there are inside. She hands three of the one-cup squares to Florian. “You can unwrap these and put them in too,” she directs. “Make sure there’s no paper left on them, okay?”

 

Florian opens each one and places them in the bowl, then looks to Anise for approval. She gives him a thumbs up.

 

“Perfect!” she says. Florian’s face lights up with the praise, and she can’t help smiling back.

 

Then she shows him how to gently mix the ingredients with the wooden spoon. They take turns, and Florian is very careful not to let any fall from the bowl. With Anise to scrapes the edges to make sure all the sugar gets mixed in, they finish up pretty quickly.

 

“Okay, what does it say next?” Anise asks, laying down the spoon.

 

Florian reads aloud, “Beat in six eggs one at a time,” He frowns. “Beat?”

 

“Um, it’s kind of like stirring really hard,” Anise says. “Until they’re all mixed together,”

 

She takes an egg from the carton and shows Florian how to crack it against the counter. His first one comes out full of shell and they have to put it aside.

 

“I’m sorry!” Florian says, looking stricken. Anise laughs.

 

“It’s fine, it’s fine! We’ll just try again. You want to do it a little more gently, and then crack it apart with your fingers,” she says, miming the motion for him.

 

Florian nods. “I’ll do my best!” he says, all determined, staring at the egg like it’s a particularly troublesome enemy. He’s way too cute for his own good.

 

The next few eggs are better. Florian cracks one at a time, then waits for Anise stir them in. They keep going until they’ve added six, and Anise fishes out any stray eggshell with her fingers. Florian isn’t doing too badly for his first try.

 

Then they have to add the milk and flour. She lets Florian stir the flour in cup by cup, and then the milk to finish it off. Once they’re done, the batter smells delicious.

 

“Do you think it’ll taste okay?” Florian asks, looking peering over the bowl.

 

Anise opens a drawer and finds a small spoon to taste test with. “Here, try it out,” she says, offering a bit to Florian first.

 

Florian’s expression lights at the taste. “It’s delicious!” he exclaims. “Anise, you have to try some. It’s really, really good!”

 

She takes a spoonful, and grins. It’s simple and sweet, with just the right hint of flavor. “It is good! Nice work,” she says, ruffling Florian’s hair.

 

Florian smiles proudly. He’s come a long way from the shivering child she had first met at the Absorption Gate, Anise thinks.

 

The two of them pour the batter into a pan and slide it into the oven alongside Anise’s other cake, which is nearly done. The recipe says that the pound cake will take over an hour to bake, so she sets a second timer.

 

In the meantime, she and Florian clean up the kitchen together, despite his initial protests. They wash the dishes and wipe down the countertops, and put all the ingredients away. While they’re working the timer for the first cake goes off, and Anise slides it out of the oven.

 

It’s a kind of cheesecake, and she gives Florian a tiny slice once it’s cool because she’s not cruel enough to withhold a fresh cake right out of the oven. And of course she cuts a bit for herself. They sit at the kitchen table and eat, while Florian tells Anise about his studies and how he’s planning on raising a generation cheagles right here within Daath. (Anise will personally exile them if they’re all as squeaky as Mieu.)

 

By the time they’re done, the pound cake is nearly ready.

 

“I can’t wait,” Florian says seriously. He’s been very patient so far, aside from casting longing glances toward the oven.

 

Anise grins. “We’re almost there,” she says, nudging his shoulder. “Besides, we just had some cake. Aren’t you full already?” she teases.

 

Florian looks horrorstruck. “Of course not! It was only a little bit!” he protests.

 

Anise shakes her head. “No way. This cake’s all for me, sorry,” She pulls on her kitty-shaped oven mitts and pulls the cake from the oven.

 

“Anise! No fair,” Florian moans, flopping over the table. The freshly baked cake smells delicious as Anise sets it on the counter beside the cheesecake from earlier.

 

“Okay, maybe you can have a little bit,” Anise concedes, using the knife from earlier to cut a sizeable chunk. “A teeny tiny bit,” She hefts the slice onto a plate and hands it Florian. “Here, that’s all you get. Mama will kill me if I let you eat too much before dinner,”

 

Florian grabs the plate with all the eagerness of a kid in a candy store. “Thank you, Anise!” he says belatedly, already digging into the cake with his fork.

 

Anise cuts a bit for herself and sits beside him to eat, just like before.

 

The cake is delicious, and it’ll work perfectly for the Yule celebration. But more importantly, Florian is content next to her, his head resting on her shoulder as he finishes the last bites of his cake. The kitchen is warm and sweet-smelling from baking, and Anise is… happy. Sure, she’s got this Fon Master thing in the bag. Just like she promised Ion, she’ll be reforming the Order, starting with mandatory cake.

 

But aside from that, Anise is turning Daath into a home. For herself, and for kids like Florian, who have nowhere else to go. She thinks Ion might be even more happy with that than the Order of Lorelei getting a full overhaul.

 

She might not be Fon Master yet, and Daath is still quite possibly the worst city on Auldrant, but in the meantime she’s got Florian and cake, and the Yule Festival to look forward to. And really, Anise couldn’t ask for anything more.


End file.
